


A Drunk Walks into a Bar... Ouch.

by Chronicles_of_Scout



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Kalex, Kalex Week, Kalex Week 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2021-02-08 06:56:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21471895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chronicles_of_Scout/pseuds/Chronicles_of_Scout
Summary: Alex has started to burn out during her last year at med school.  Her boards loom over her and, with her drinking reaching new levels of trouble, her advisor tells her to take a week off and come back with her energy.  Only Alex has no intentions of returning.  She’s just lost her father and she’s not sure what the point of saving anyone’s life is, if she couldn’t even save him.
Relationships: Alex Danvers/Kara Danvers
Comments: 12
Kudos: 185
Collections: Kalex Appreciation Week 2019





	A Drunk Walks into a Bar... Ouch.

**Author's Note:**

> Like I said, I've been writing a lot.
> 
> This one is completely new though. Short and sweet. Some blood in the beginning but no violence so that's different. Uh... I think that's it. For anyone who's interested, I think I'll start posting Star Wars next week. I know I've been talking about it since June but I reached Chapter 24 today so I think I'll have a good pace to not leave anyone stranded. *insert thumbs up emoji here*
> 
> No Beta, all mistakes are my own.

Alex finds the music choices of bars to be very interesting.For the most part, they usually have more relaxing tones going on.No hardcore metal, or angry rock, or even the more aggressive rap tracks.Generally speaking, when you went to a bar you were going to hear songs about love, heartbreak, and loss.

Three things that Alex is almost certain makes people drink even more.

Which… maybe that was the whole point?

To have your patrons so depressed that they decided to drink themselves under a table to forget.And, in forgetting, remember that this was the place that helped them forget in the first place so that they would come back for more.

Until the cycle was so ingrained that the bar had regulars, and the city had alcoholics, and the patrons slowly lost everything.

Or maybe she’s overthinking it.

Maybe she’s just being dramatic.

There’s some sort of sports program playing on the monitors behind the bar that she latches onto instead.She needs to, because her eyes have started to burn, and she’s just finished her whiskey and the bartender has already announced last call.

It’s already two in the morning and instead of studying for her boards, Alex is at My Father’s Daughter.An aptly named bar that is a lot more upscale than the other places she can afford.More than likely it’s because Barbara Gordon is the former police commissioner’s daughter.

Barb might be a red head in a wheelchair but she’s tough as nails and puts up with absolutely zero crap.

It’s why Alex had chosen to waste away here rather than anywhere else.

Initially she’d been awed that a woman owned a bar.And a “pretty” woman at that, not just your run of the mill biker chick that the media showed you.An honest to god, Disney Princess Ariel level lady.

Then she’d actually talked to Barb and found that she was _smart._Like crazy smart.She’d made a shit ton of money by building a security program for the UN to monitor international terrorist threats.

Instead of retiring sweet and homey, Barb had set up a halfway house for women and children and opened a bar.

And, while the bar is nice, a solid structure with wooden floors, a sturdy wooden bar top, and photo clippings of humanity’s greatest achievements, it’s still just a bar.

It smells like cigar smoke and something old.

There are big burly men and sometimes younger people looking for a party and the required finance guys needing their fix.

The lighting is dim and while people are friendly, they’re all in their own worlds.

It’s a bar.

It’s nothing special.

And Alex may have no idea where the bar fit in Barb’s plans for altruism, but she isn’t going to complain.Barb managed to keep most of the rift raft out which meant that Alex could drink in peace.

It was more than she’d hoped for honestly.

“You planning on moving in Doc?”

Speaking of Barbara… 

Alex sighs, downing the glass of water the bartender had set in front of her and spinning on her bar stool.

Barbara Gordon, her red hair pulled back from her face in a ponytail, is sitting idly in front of Alex in her chair.Her hands are on the wheels, one holding her steady while the other rocks her back and forth almost absentmindedly.

Alex takes her in for a moment, more for necessity than want.Her head’s a little cloudy right now and she’s having a hard time focusing on words.

It doesn’t bother Barb.She’s well used to dealing with Alex’s drunkenness by this point.

“I told you to stop calling me that.”

“I see no reason not to.You’re still on track to graduate and you’ve still got a few months left to study so—”

“I **_told you not to call me that_**.”

Barb stops, her words, her hands, everything.She just stares at Alex in that way that always manages to make her feel like she’s being studied.

Lip curling, Alex reaches into her pocket and grabs her wallet.There are three twenties that she pulls out and slams on the bar before she grabs her jacket and walks out.

No one stops her.

Tomorrow she’ll be back for more and they can start this stupid dance all over again.

National City is rarely ever cold, but it does get nippy.Especially at night.

As she steps out of the bar, Alex is already flipping the collar of her leather jacket up, the biting wind still managing to sneak in and creep over her chest.

Hopefully her twenty minute walk will warm her up and she can be back in her apartment and under a blanket in record time.

She’ll probably also be sober.

Or at least _feel _sober.She’d still fail a sobriety test, but she’d probably be able to recite the periodic table if asked.

She feels like that should be on the sobriety test.

Walking in a straight line is for straight people and Alex was very solidly queer.

It’s as she’s meandering down the still lively streets of National City that it occurs.

“It” of course being a series of events that could only ever happen to Alexandra Danvers, trouble magnet extraordinaire.

There’s a bodega to her right, and she knows this because she considers walking in and getting a bottle of water to help with her inevitable dehydration and hangover.However, before she can make a decision either way, her attention is drawn by loud shouts, a blaring horn and screeching tires.Her head turns in time to see a small child being hurled across the street by a woman.

Then there’s a loud _thud, _some screams, and the girl is suddenly on the ground.

Alex had seen the in-between, had seen the impact and the way the body had rolled a few times before coming to a stop; had even glanced up at the definitively red stoplight, but she is suddenly and clarifyingly on autopilot.

There’s already a handful of people around the woman by the time Alex kicks into gear and the child, a boy, who had been with her is full on sobbing over her body.

Someone’s calling an ambulance and there are a few more people leaning out of apartment windows trying to see what’s going on.

Alex files all of this away in her secondary memory.It’s not important right now.

ABCs.

“Move, move, move.I’m a doctor!”Alex pushes through until she’s kneeling next to the woman.Someone pulls the boy away, but Alex can still hear him crying so she doesn’t worry about that.

Instead she focuses on the woman, on the stuttered breathing and the location of the bleeding.Because that is a lot of blood.

Grimacing, Alex gently feels along her neck, checking her spine for any lumps or fractures.

“Hey, my name is Alex Danvers I’m gonna help you ok?Can you tell me your name?”

“Clark…”

The woman’s eyes flutter and Alex bites back a curse when she feels a small lump on the right side of her neck.It might be nothing, but it means Alex’s options of mobility have just gone down to zero.

With the way her knees are slowly becoming soaked in blood, that’s more than a minor concern.

She can’t move her, or she could paralyze her.

If she doesn’t move her, she might kill her.

“Ok Clark, my name is—”

“No.”The woman’s eyes, blue and heavily dilated in her right pupil, dart around sluggishly.It takes Alex another second to realize that she’s looking for someone.

The kid.

She glances behind her, the boy sobbing in what is assuredly a stranger’s shoulder.

“He’s fine.”Alex promises, gently probing along the right side of the woman’s head, one hand keeping her neck still.“You got him out of the way and he’s fine.”

“Don’t let him see me die.”The woman moans, eyes fluttering.“Please don’t let him see me die.”

“You’re not dying!”Alex insists, fingers finally landing on the bleeder.It’s right in front of her ear and Alex quickly rips off first her jacket, and then her flannel shirt.Thankfully she had put on a tank top that morning, since her flannel shirt is now being used to keep pressure on the side of Kara’s head.

There are still no sounds of approaching sirens, but Alex hears someone yelling at the emergency response team.This late at night, on this side of town?

It might take a while.

“Hey!”Alex prompts, eyes already jumping to their next and major problem.“Hey, ‘not Clark’.Don’t go to sleep on me ok?”

“Ok.”The woman says, breathily.Her voice doesn’t sound wet though, so Alex relaxes marginally on worrying over her chest.

“What’s your name honey?Huh?What’s your name?”

“Kara.”

“Ok.”Alex whispers, wincing as she eyes the broken arm trapped almost under Kara’s torso.“Ok Kara, your arm is broken ok?I need to move you so I can see, but _you_ cannotmove ok?”

Kara starts crying and Alex looks around for the most muscular man she can find.

“Name?”Alex asks, none of the calm she’d been using with Kara in her voice.

“James.”The man replies, his huge arms stretching his shirt as he crouches next to them.“That’s my girlfriend on the phone with 911.She’ll get them here if you can… she’ll get them here.”

“I need you to hold her neck and shoulders like this,” Alex demonstrates, crouching behind Kara and bracing her.“I can maneuver the rest of her as long as I know I’m not going to hurt her neck.”

James nods and Alex hurries back into Kara’s line of sight.

“I don’t think I introduced myself back there.”She says slightly winded from the adrenaline pumping through her veins, waiting for James to get in place.“I’m Alex.”

“Clark?”

“He’s fine.I need to move you ok?It’s gonna hurt.”

“Ok.”

“Ok, don’t move.”Alex is as gentle as she can be, but Kara still sobs when her arm is extracted from under her.

And that’s when Alex starts to panic.She looks at James, hands dropping over Kara’s ears so she can’t hear.

“I need a knife.”She says as softly as possible.James’ eyes are locked on Kara’s blue arm and Alex hisses at him to grab his attention.“James!I need a knife.Find one!”

“The ambulance says it’s 5 minutes away.”James’ girlfriend, a pretty brunette, leans over him and discretely hands Alex a pocketknife.Alex takes the knife and shakes her head, eyeing the plastic CVS bag wrapped tight around Kara’s bicep.Lucy nods. “I can help hold her.”

The rapidly swelling left arm is textbook compartment syndrome and, Alex may not have been counting, but she’s fairly certain they’ve been at this for at least 8 minutes.

Fuck.

She was a med student not a doctor.

She hadn’t even sat her boards and she was already making decisions that would see her license revoked.

If she didn’t do something Kara would lose her arm.

Clark is crying behind her; Kara’s eyes flutter closed.

“Hey!”Alex taps the blonde’s cheek, blue eyes blinking back open.“No sleeping ok?Can you feel this?”

Alex prods the arm and Kara doesn’t even flinch.

“What?”The blonde asks.

“Tell me about Clark.”Alex cuts the bag away first, relieving the pressure and sending a box skidding along the asphalt. Reading the label, Alex sees the name ‘Lantus’ and works quicker, mentally visualizing her cut.“Are you a diabetic Kara?”

She needs to know if the medication was meant for Kara, if she was working on a diabetic that brought on a whole new slew of issues and concerns.

“Clark.”

Alex nods, braces herself, and slices down Kara’s arm.Blood flows out heavily, but after several tense seconds, Alex tests the capillary refill in Kara’s fingers and is satisfied at the blood return.

“I need—” James has already pulled his shirt off and handed it over, Alex laying the fabric along the laceration.

Kara groans, mumbling something that Alex doesn’t quite catch because she can _finally _hear the ambulance sirens.

“Can you repeat that?”Alex asks, allowing Lucy to take over holding pressure on Kara’s head so that she can use her hand check for any other injuries.“I didn’t hear you honey.”

Licking her lips, Kara tries again.“9229.”Alex frowns and looks up at her, watching the blonde’s eyes close.

“Hey! Woah, woah, woah, woah, woah!”

“My… password… call Martha… please, tell her… I… Clark.Please.”

“Kara!”Alex curses and grasps Kara’s face, bloody fingers pressing into pale cheeks as she tries to get her to wake up again.“Kara!”

~*~

Six Months Later

“Are you ok?”

“No.”

“It’s not all bad though right?”Barb questions from the other side of the booth.“I mean, you’re not drinking so I’m assuming that you’re not leaping off the deep end.”

The deep end being the cesspool that Alex had dragged herself out of that day almost six months ago.She’d been drunk out of her mind and the only help for miles while a woman, Kara, had bled out in the middle of the street.

The driver had been drunk too, but unlike Alex, he had had the audacity to get behind the wheel.Kara had been injured pretty badly and Alex had sat with the child, Clark, while they waited to hear if she would make it.

Before she’d passed out, Kara had given Alex the passcode to her phone, so she’d used it to locate the aforementioned “Martha” and inform her that Kara and Clark were at the Luthor Medical Center in what was known as “College town”.

It had been a while before Martha, Clark’s guardian, had shown up and by then Alex had sobered up.The woman had been in fits, especially when she saw Alex’s still bloody clothing.She hadn’t wanted to leave Clark alone to clean up and she didn’t exactly know the rules when it came to children.How old was too old for a boy to go in the lady’s room?Clark looked to be about eight, but Alex thought that was a little old.

She’d opted to sit in her filth.

Once Martha came, she had quickly excused herself and would have made her escape if Clark hadn’t tried to follow her to the bathroom.In the end, she had let him in with her, understanding that she was his “safety-net” so to speak.What he had just witnessed had been traumatic and, to him at least, Alex had been the center of the calm.With a hysterical guardian in the waiting room, Alex knew she’d be there for a while.

In the end, Kara had sustained a concussion, skull contusion, head laceration, a partial dislocation at C6, fractured scapula, fractured humorous, and dislocated wrist.There’d been some more bruises and road rash but when Alex had left the small family that day, she’d left knowing Kara would make a full recovery.

Martha had also revealed, while they were waiting that Kara was an orphan; that Clark was the only family she had left.Kara was in college studying engineering, but she made sure she carved out time in her weekends for Clark to come over and spend the night.

Martha had told her that Clark had forgotten his insulin at school, and they’d had to put in a rush order since he was on scheduled medication.While some drunk asshole had almost ended her life, Kara had only been trying to preserve her baby cousin’s.

Walking home that night, Alex had felt disgusted with it all; disgusted with herself.Here she was with the ability to help, to _save _lives and she was what?Drinking?Sad because her father was dead?

Kara had lost both her parent’s and she was still functioning.What right did Alex have to wallow forever?Kara could have died tonight, because of her.

Kara had lived, because of her.

She much preferred to be the reason people _lived._Alex could make it so that less people lost their parents.

An odd revelation to have at seven am post bender, but it was a revelation that had set Alex back on the road to her license.She’d passed her boards a month ago and was now interviewing around the country.She wasn’t graduating magna cum laude or anything but being in the top ten percent of her class wasn’t too shabby either.

Alex sighs and buries her head in her hands.“No; Seattle isn’t the only place with a great trauma program, it was just the _best _you know?”

“I don’t mean to brag, but I hear National City gets its fair share of trauma.”Barb shrugs, and glances down at herself. “I mean I _hear_ their doctors are pretty good.”

Alex chuckles and throws a wadded-up napkin at her.

“I wanted to stretch my wings, see the world.”

“Honey, two weeks in Seattle is not you seeing the world.”

“It’s better than this dump.”

“You _love _this dump.”Barb snorts, not even attempting to act offended.“And this _dump _is what is going to make your day.”

Genuinely curious, Alex tilts her head and perks up.“Why?Did you finally get that French Wine?The chocolate one?”

“No.And for the last time, we don’t serve wine at my bar.”

“You _love _wine.”

“It doesn’t go with my aesthetic,” Barb argues, switching easily back to her wheelchair and nodding her head towards the door.“Now, I believe you’ve met Kara?”

Alex turns her head automatically and locks on a blue dress, cinched at the waist and layered under what looks like a long beige cardigan.She can’t be sure because as soon as Barb had said the name “Kara” her brain had short circuited and she’d frozen.

Kara.

Kara car accident Kara.

Oh.

Oh, boy.

“Hi Alex.I’m uh, really glad that I finally get a chance to meet you.”

Kara’s voice is soft, softer than it had been that day.Prettier.She sounds like someone who could sing well and not threatening at all it’s just…

It’s one thing to know your patient might survive and quite another to _know they survived._

Kara speaks again, her hand gesturing to the seat Barbara had vacated.“Do you mind if I sit?”

Shaking her head, Alex finally snaps out of it long enough to look at Kara’s face.Yet another significant difference.Kara looks a hell of a lot different healthy and whole than she had sprawled bloody and broken on the street.

The blue eyes are the first thing Alex sees, just because they are _very _blue.Kara’s wearing glasses, thick black frames that she fidgets with as she sits, and they still don’t detract from her eyes.She’s got thick honey blonde hair, pulled back in a ponytail with an obvious undercut.And, when Alex spots the surgical scar running above her ear, the haircut makes more sense.

Alex tries hard not to stare.

“Sorry.”Kara says breathily when she’s seated, folding her hands on the table in front of her.“I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable.I just… The hospital said you didn’t work for them and then I only had a name and the location of the… _accident_ so I had to ask around to find you.”

Alex blinks, redirects her focus from the fact that _both_ of Kara’s hands seem to be working fine.

“You were looking for me?”

“Of course.I wanted to thank you; you saved my life.”

“I saved…? That was luck.”Self-consciously, Alex scratches her cheek.This is why they always said don’t meet your heroes because as much as Kara thought she was a great person, Alex knew she wasn’t.She’d been in no condition to treat _anyone _that night, let alone someone as bad off as Kara.She’d gotten extremely lucky._Kara _had gotten extremely lucky and Alex had to be honest about that.“I don’t know how much they told you, but I was pissed that night.I’m really sorry I put you at risk like that.”

Kara smiles, a straight line of pretty teeth and full pink lips.“And yet here we are… I can’t believe you just apologized for saving my life.”The blonde ducks her head, pulling at her fingers while releasing a soft chuckle.“Barbara said you’d probably be like this.She told me to save my breath.And then she told me to be here today at this time.”

Alex looks towards the bar, bending her body a little to get a glimpse of her friend.Barbara catches her eye from where she’s whispering with a big burly man and flashes her a thumbs up.Rolling her eyes Alex turns back to the blonde.

“This is going to sound weird but… are you gay?”

Kara’s eyebrows shoot up.“I’m sorry?”

“Me too.”Alex points over her shoulder at the odd duo, leaning close to Kara to stage whisper.“Those two idiots are Barbara Gordon, who owns this bar, and John Jones, who owns the building I live in.They’ve seemingly adopted me and have made it their life goal to see me married off with a good job and a white picket fence.”

“Oh.”

“Yep.The thing is: I’m a lesbian.So, since you seem straight, we can just tell them that they’ve failed and avoid any more awkwardness.”

Alex had made to stand, had planted her hands on the table and pressed down when Kara speaks and sends her right back into her seat.

“What makes you think I’m straight?”At first Kara had seemed genuinely confused, face scrunching in adorable bafflement but she seems to become more embarrassed the longer it takes Alex to answer.

“I just… you seem like you…”Alex gestures vaguely at her person, herself unable to come up with words to adequately describe why she’d believed Kara to be anything else but straight.

Because in reality, if Kara _were _queer, Alex would be having a mini gay panic attack.Because in reality, Kara was gorgeous.Maybe not in the traditional sense, with a nose and mouth that are just a tad too big to be considered “glamourous”, but in an Alex sense?Yes.For certain.

Kara knows how to dress, the blue of her dress accentuating the blue of her eyes.The glasses give a sort of adorably sexy librarian kind of vibe and the way she smiles… 

Alex hadn’t been a goner when she’d saved Kara on the street all of those months ago, but she’d been a little preoccupied with the blood and arm slicing to notice.

She’s trying really hard not to notice now.

“You just have a very nice shaped head.”Alex says, her eyes closing as the words exit her mouth, ears burning beyond what a normal human should experience.“Please forget I said that.”

“I… my head shape defines my sexuality?”

“No?”

“You don’t sound very certain doctor.”

Was she flirting?Was this—what was this?These things didn’t happen to Alex.Cute maybe-not-straight girls did not just randomly hit on her in bars.This was going against the very laws of nature.

Groaning, Alex swipes a hand over her face and opens her eyes.Kara is smiling at her, eyes lowered in challenge.

“I just meant that… when I was working on you, I noticed you had a very… _round _skull and… you’re um… obviously attractive so that’s… uh… not that gay people _can’t _be attractive it’s just that I’ve never met someone that _I _was attracted to so… you being… a uh…uh… I’m gonna shut up now.”

“I really wish you wouldn’t.”Kara is blushing heavily and fiddles with a pair of black glasses even as she avoids all eye contact. “Usually I’m the one with word vomit.”

Alex laughs nervously, scratching her forehead and fighting a wince.“That’s comforting.”

“I’m bisexual,” Kara says after several minutes of awkward silence.She pulls her hands off the table, dropping them to her lap instead, shoulders hunching slightly in a move born of self-preservation.“If that helps you any.”Kara pauses and gives a shy grin and a shrug.“With the attraction thing.”

Alex sinks in her seat.“God.”

“Wow; that’s a first.Usually holy deities are reserved for the bedroom.”Kara’s eyes twinkle and Alex forgets how to breathe.

“You’re trying to kill me.”Alex whispers.

“No.I wouldn’t do that.I’ve been dreaming of you for months; no way would I try to off you now.”

“Me?”

Shocked doesn’t even begin to explain how Alex feels right now.Her heart has never beat so fast in her _life!_And she’d played soccer!Midfielder!But Kara is giving her such a soft look of fondness that she doesn’t quite know what to do with herself.

“Why is that so hard to believe Alex?You _saved _my life and… well, I’m sure you already know this but you’re really pretty.Like stupid good-looking.That and the whole hero thing really bump you way passed everyone else.”

No.No Alex did not know she was ‘pretty’ and she was now falling very rapidly into that gay induced panic attack.

“I… I’m glad you’re ok but I need to go.”

Run it was.

Kara catches her hand when she stands though, and Alex realizes that Kara is maybe two inches taller than her in her heels.

Which… was a turn on.

“Wait.Before you go would you… can I have your number?”

“Why?”

Alex immediately regrets the question because: hot girl asks for your number; you _give her your number_.Her brain gives the valid point though that this is obviously more than Alex can be trusted to handle and she should get back to running.

“I…” Kara’s head tilts adorably and she gives a nervous laugh.“I don’t know. I want to get to know you?”Alex stares blankly and Kara tries again.“Like maybe I can take you on a date?An interaction in which two interested parties exchange personal details in the hopes of connecting on a deeper level?”

Alex exhales loudly.“Oh.”

A few awkward heartbeats later and Kara is pulling away.

“I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to be quite so forward.I just… I must have read that wrong.I wanted to say thank you, so thank you.I really do appreciate the drunken lifesaving.”

Alex nods stupidly and Kara gives her a thin smile before grabbing her belongings.

“I don’t do this.”Alex blurts before Kara can completely leave.The blonde straightens, eyes widening behind her glasses at the blatant display of nerves.“I don’t know and… well, med students don’t really socialize very much.Or I didn’t.I wanted to graduate top of my class so I—I studied like all the time and I didn’t really have time for girls or anything so I never… But you’re really beautiful and I— God!”Alex shakes her head, swiping a hand over her mouth before trying again.“I would really like to go on a date with you if you don’t mind the um, awkwardness.”

Kara’s biting her lip, but her smile is still blinding.Alex thinks maybe she hadn’t just messed this up.

“What are you doing Friday night?”

They make plans quickly, exchanging numbers and details before beginning to part ways.Kara’s still smiling and she tucks her phone into the pocket of her sweater.

“I will see you on Friday Dr. Danvers.”

Alex’s heart jumps, Kara taking a step around her and what happens next can only be described as nerd induced panic.

Because Alex kisses her.

She grabs her sweater, spins Kara around, and plants one on her lips.

And, when Kara gasps, she slips her a little tongue, electrifying literally every cell in her body.

And then common sense takes over and she jerks away, one hand raising to cover her mouth as she looks at Kara in alarm.

“I’m so sorry.”

Kara looks dazed and does nothing more but nod and make a weird gurgle sound.Then she’s walking away, her feet moving oddly, almost drunkenly… if the way she stumbles into a stool on her way out is any indication.

Odd.Alex hadn’t even seen her take a drink.

Barbara wheels herself back over, eyebrows in her hairline.

“Now _that_ is what I call game.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is Barbara Gordon post getting shot by the Joker. You can decide if she was ever batgirl or if J'onn is a Martian or not.
> 
> Seattle is a nod to Grey's so in this verse Alex will never be Lexie... bittersweet. 
> 
> Anyway, hope you guys liked it.


End file.
